It’s rare that we get completely overcast days around here. The sun almost always makes an appearance. Even with clouds plastering the sky, the light is rather bright – especially when it is reflected off of all that snow in winter. We’ve had snow all weekend with only a couple of sucker holes (windows of blue sky) in an otherwise monochromatic landscape. Our snow is fluffy and squeaky – *squeak* *squeak* with each step. It offers no resistance when you kick through it and it sticks to Kaweah’s schnoz when she sniffs about for dead things.

that bright blob is the sun

on our walk this evening

she may be getting old, but she still loves to romp in the snow

A few weeks ago I was testing out a recipe I had been wanting to make for years. Friands. I had heard about them, seen them, even have several recipes for friands in various books, notes, and bookmarked blog posts. They are so cute that it’s hard to believe I didn’t get around to making them sooner. They are based in large part on almond meal and almond is one of my favorite flavors.

mix the almond meal with the powdered sugar and flour

stir in the egg whites

I made these friands several times. The first time, I spooned too much batter into the forms and the fruit became completely enveloped such that you never knew they were there until you bit into one. The second time I made them, they turned out beautifully and were distributed to neighbors, and Jeremy’s department. The third time I made a double batch so there were enough to hand out at Chinese New Year’s Eve (for folks to eat first thing in the morning on Chinese New Year’s Day so sweet things come out of their mouths all year) plus extras for Jeremy to enjoy – which he did. It’s so simple to make.

combine the butter with the batter

set the fruit on top

This recipe also leaves you with a lot of egg yolks, which is why I was making four different flavors of ice cream the same week I made the friands. For me, it’s a moist cake version of a French macaron because it is based on egg whites, almond meal, powdered sugar… And I love the fact that they are cute, short, tiny cakes. The combination of the almond and the raspberries is my favorite. A perfect little present.

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Place butter in a saucepan over low heat and cook until melted and a light golden color. Set aside. Place the almond meal, confectioner’s sugar, flour, and baking powder in a bowl and whisk to combine. Stir the egg whites into the dry mix until combined. Pour in the butter and stir until completely combined. Stir in the almond extract (optional). Grease a dozen 1/2 cup capacity muffin tins or tins of any type. I like my square tins better (grease more as needed – Donna says ten in her recipe, but I made 14). Spoon 2 tablespoons of batter into each tin and plop the a few berries on top. Bake 15-20 minutes or until the tops are golden and spring back when you touch them. Makes a dozen (or more).

47 nibbles at “i am liking this”

Of course, I’m jealous of the raspberries once again… Can I trade you some perfect mangoes for them? :) I can just imagine how delicious this would be – especially with a side of four different kinds of ice cream, hehe

They look so cute I want to throw a tea party just to have an excuse to share them. I too am jealous of the raspberries. There are no fresh ones available my me right now, so I’ll have to improvise. Thank you for sharing.

I’m going to go get the almond meal out of the freezer. There are fresh strawberries & blueberries in the house, & frozen raspberries. I might try one or 2 with the frozen just because I love raspberries the most. This will be a great thing to do with the kids who have a snow day today!

Thank you! I whip up some ice cream when we’re expecting guests, but I haven’t found something we love to use the egg whites for yet, especially when time is short. Kaweah is still adorable — I love how you capture her personality :) Our dog has tons of it, but I’m camera-powerless! :)

Friands are wonderful – so simple and tasty. I giggled thinking about the squeaky snow – it’s too warm here, so our snow just slushes and splatters as we walk through it. Oh well, at least we have some :)

Sometimes when I look at Kaweah’s eyes I can hear him talking. I was put off friands when I once had one that was heavy and cluggy. So horrible I’ve never forgotten the day or the cafe in Sydney. Yours look nice and light.

I’m smiling because this weekend, after I made some candied lemons….aka Jen, I sat down to consider making strawberry friands (which I only learnt about a few weeks ago, thanks to a failed macaron experiment). Now, I didn’t have any strawberries at home so….my egg whites are still in the fridge. This is a must make tomorrow! They look stunning…….

Ended up helping my neighbors cope with the tragic death of one of their dogs today, & that was just the worst thing that happened on a day filled with problems & frustrations. Luckily I had made the friands early & we had at least one bright spot in our day. BTW, frozen, unthawed, raspberries seemed to work well. Delicious. Thanks for introducing me to something new & different.

These are absolutely cute!! And I adore the little square pans that you have! Oh my, I need to start looking around. And I have just the perfect mini square pan liners for this. But I need that pan first!

These sound (and look!) delicious. You are an incredibly talented photographer and chef(!) and I love your blog. I wonder though, where in the world did you find a square many-welled tin like that?? Have I been looking in all the wrong places?

I’ve always avoided from friands and macarons because 1) I have to skin and blitz my almonds (haaaard work) and 2) I’d have all those egg yolks left over =(
I guess it’s time for some custard-based ice cream then?

So cute . . . Friands are the same thing as financiers? This recipe reminds me of a recipe from the LA Times for raspberry financiers from Little Next Door. (The recipe was printed in 2007, so it has been over 2 years that I have been thinking about making this recipe . . )

[…] adapted to be made into individual portions, but I was charmed when I came across these Friands on Use Real Butter. So cute! I had several jars of almonds *in the shell* that had to be cracked. So, as my friends […]

I made this two days in a row! Since I did not have cute little square pans and wanted them to be distinguished from muffins, I made this in a 8″ round pan. We polished the first one off at one meal and my children asked for it the next night. Since I had left over almond meal… why not?